Scientists have genetically modified isolated microbes for decades. Now, using CRISPR, they intend to target entire microbiomes.

A green fluorescent dye with a novel DNA binding mechanism improves signal-to-noise in different DNA amplification assays.

Microbiome studies have yielded hundreds of ideas for ways to detect and influence human health, but the field struggles with reproducibility challenges that hamper bringing these goals to fruition. Identical tubes of fecal matter should help.

This year’s crop of winning products features many with a clinical focus and others that represent significant advances in sequencing, single-cell analysis, and more.

With the help of directed evolution, scientists inch closer to developing viral vectors that can cross the human blood-brain barrier to deliver gene therapy.

Microfluidic systems redefined biology by providing platforms that handle small fluid volumes, catalyzing advancements in cellular and molecular studies.

Researchers discover that bacteria break down medicinal compounds for their nitrogen, solving a mystery that has vexed aquatic veterinarians for years.

Microbiological Research Author: RICKI LEWIS AND HOLLY AHERN, p.24 Microbiology has evolved from ancient art to savvy science. Yesterday's painstaking tasks of culturing and identifying microorganisms have been joined by rapid detection strategies and intricate genetic manipulations. Microbiologists may still streak specimens on agar plates and wait overnight for bacterial colonies to grow, as was done two centuries ago, but today they may also use spectrophotometers or chromatographs. Gas

At The Scientist, we are strengthening our roots while reaching for the sky.

Courtesy of Mary Ann Moran  THE MICROBE HUNTER: University of Georgia graduate student Justine Lyons uses new molecular approaches to study the diversity of bacteria and fungi in a coastal salt marsh on Georgia's Sapelo Island. An outbreak of Salmonellosis erupted in Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, and Alabama during the winter of 1981. Frustrated epidemiologists could find no common link, until they finally realized what all the victims had in common: marijuana.1 Samples of pot used by some pa